Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
The Roman Bridge at Nimreh
A single-arched Roman bridge 10 kilometres south-east of Shahba, its vault built from three parallel transverse arches: a method known from no other Roman bridge.
As-Suwayda · Roman
The Nabataean Arch in Bosra
The 1st-century arch that closes Bosra’s main street at its east end: Petra-style capitals, the sanctuary-gateway theory, and what stands of it today.
Bosra · Nabataean
Nawa, Hometown of Imam al-Nawawi
A Hauran town 40 km north of Daraa, where Imam al-Nawawi was born and buried and Roman and Byzantine stones sit in house walls. His tomb was destroyed in 2015.
Daraa · Roman — Byzantine — early Islamic — Mamluk — Ottoman
Noria al-Muhammadiyya, Hama
The older of Hama’s two giant waterwheels: 21 metres across, 120 buckets and a 1361 inscription. Built to water the Great Mosque, and still on the Orontes.
Hama · Mamluk
Mashta Azar, Valley of the Christians
A village at the western end of the Valley of the Christians, known for a stream cut through rock, the rock-carved chamber of Naghous al-Nahr and a stone bridge.
Homs · Present village about 500 years old; older remains at al-Qanatir
Al-Masmiyah (Phaena): The Roman Capital of Trachonitis
Phaena, Roman capital of al-Lajat: its temple of 160-169 was pulled down in 1875, leaving an Ottoman guard post and the paving of the Damascus-Bosra Roman road.
Daraa · Roman — Byzantine; Ottoman
Battle of al-Mazraa Memorial
The 1970 memorial on the plain 12 kilometres north-west of Suwayda where a French column was routed on 2-3 August 1925, and the story of the battle behind it.
As-Suwayda · French Mandate
Masyaf: The Old Town Below the Castle
There is more to Masyaf than its castle: town walls from 1249, a mosque linked to Saladin, a fountain from 1788 and the town travellers described for centuries.
Hama · Aramaean origins — Nizari Ismaili — Mamluk — Ottoman
Marmarita, Valley of the Christians
A village at 850 metres between Homs and Tartus, with the old stone-arched market of al-Sahle, three churches of its founding families and a 14 August carnival.
Homs · Early 17th century — present
Al-Lajat Lava Field (Trachonitis)
Some 900 square kilometres of broken basalt, 50 km south of Damascus: ancient Trachonitis, Roman and Byzantine villages, a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 2009.
As-Suwayda · Volcanic formation; Roman and Byzantine villages
The Martyrs’ Memorial and Tomb of Sultan al-Atrash, al-Qurayya
The memorial to the martyrs of the 1925 Great Syrian Revolt at al-Qurayya, 19 km south of Suwayda. Sultan al-Atrash lies here, beside a museum and his guest hall.
As-Suwayda · Modern (1925 revolt)
The Battle of al-Kafr Memorial
At al-Kafr on 22 July 1925, Sultan al-Atrash’s horsemen broke a French column in half an hour. The site and memorial of the clash that began the Great Syrian Revolt.
As-Suwayda · French Mandate